In many respects, today is a lousy moment to discuss what Al Thornton means to the Los Angeles Clippers in the long term. For one, making wholesale evaluations of a team or a player following a game like last night’s win over Boston is always dangerous due to the lightning-in-a-bottle quality of the victory. Would the Clippers have won last night’s game had Thornton played 38 minutes, and Mardy Collins been used in a limited role? Unlikely, but as sample sizes go, one game against a unique opponent is an unfair measure of a single player’s value. Collins is the only guy on the active roster with the defensive skills to render Paul Pierce ineffective, and the results of a Thornton-Pierce matchup would’ve likely produced far less favorable results for the Clippers.

Second, Eric Gordon’s uncertain status presents another challenge, because it’s impossible to look at a team’s small forward in an isolated context without also considering his counterpart at the 2. What Thornton can or can’t do to help the ball club is an entirely different conversation if that team has Eric Gordon at shooting guard versus, say, Fred Jones, Cuttino Mobley, or Kobe Bryant for that matter. Wing players on a good team will always share a symbiosis beyond sheer chemistry. Trying to glean something meaningful about Thornton’s absence is virtually impossible while Gordon is also out of action.

Those disclaimers aside, Mardy Collins’ performance last night provides, if not a proper parallel, then at least an interesting prism through which to view the Clippers’ wing personnel. Collins and Thornton possess some of the same properties. Both are historically inefficient offensive players, and they share a virtually identical, poor true shooting percentage as a Clipper this season [49.2 TS% for Collins/49.3 TS% for Thornton]. Apart from that, they’re quite different. Al is your prototypical small forward who relies on his very singular athleticism to create his own shot. Collins, meanwhile, lacks quickness and athleticism and must use his versatility as a role player with a passable handle, decent ability to move the basketball, and a capacity to defend multiple positions.

The Celtics were the perfect opponent for Collins to showcase his limited talents. Boston runs multiple pick-and-rolls on both sides of the floor, always looking for the defensive switch they can exploit in an instant. Collins is a flexible defender who knows what he’s doing on the S/R, and doesn’t cost you a lot on a switch, whether he ends up on the ball, the roll, a PG, and even some bigs. When Boston goes to an isolation set, Pierce is their guy — particularly when Garnett is out of the lineup. Collins proved last night that he’s a capable man-to-man defender, something Thornton struggles with on a nightly basis.

Enter Eric Gordon. Asked recently if he could think of anything wrong with his rookie phenom, Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy shrugged.

“He’s not 6′ 5″?”

Here’s what we can infer from Dunleavy’s point: Gordon has demonstrated some serious defensive chops against many opposing shooting guards, but as capable as Eric is in that regard, he doesn’t afford his coach the luxury of assigning him to the opponent’s small forward. For a lot of coaches, that flexibility is crucial. Many Clippers fans became frustrated with Dunleavy’s reliance on Cuttino Mobley for big minutes in recent years. What was often missed is that Mobley could guard athletic 3s, something Dunleavy desperately needed against more complicated offenses. Whatever shortcomings Mobley demonstrated — and there were many — the ability to stick him on a Carmelo Anthony or Paul Pierce was helpful.

Since Eric is unquestionably the Clippers’ shooting guard of the future — and since height is one area where Eric won’timprove — the next question is this: Given Eric’s size limitation, what do the Clippers need out of their small forward?

When you look at the rest of the personnel: Baron Davis, Zach Randolph, Chris Kaman/Marcus Camby, I think it’s fair to say that the most important attributes you want in a small forward are [1] Solid, if not lockdown, defensive skills against the league’s most dangerous small forwards, because Eric — for all his wonderful qualities as a shooting guard — can’t pick up those assignments. [2] An ability to keep the ball moving in the halfcourt.

If Al Thornton isn’t the long-term answer for the Clippers at the starting small forward spot, then neither is Mardy Collins. He’s far too ineffective an offensive player, even taking into account his redeeming qualities. The Clippers won last night because Collins did steady defensive work on a dynamic player, not because of his offensive output, which was a neutral contributing factor to the victory at best. The fact that Collins isn’t all that much worse than Thornton says a lot more about Al than it does about Mardy.

Barring another catastrophic injury, it’s widely assumed that the Clippers will deal one of their big men between now and the next trading deadline. When thinking about what the Clips might want in return, a well-conceived idea of how they can improve on the wings will be very helpful.

I don’t think Mardy Collins is capable of playing heavy minutes every game.
He can make helpful contributions just by playing 25mpg. He should play
most of 4th quarter.

Stian

I think we could actually be OK with a Thornton/Collins tandem at the 3 and whoever starts/gets the majority of the minutes would depend on the opponent. I wouldn’t trade Kaman or Camby for a SF unless it was for a stud like Granger. The only big man the Clippers should deal is Skinner. I want to see the Camby/Z-Bo/Kaman rotation for 20 games so we get an idea how good this configuration can be.

EricGordonsAnkleBrace

Shane Battier or someone like that. Defensive stud that isn’t a liability on offense.

We won’t have enough cap space (most likely) to sign a big player like Artest or Marion. While Marion hasn’t been very good lately, you have to imagine he’ll demand more than a mid level exception.

To get the small forward K.A. described, it’s either going to have to be via the draft or via trade. Problem is, with teams trying desperately to cut money and end long term deals due to the economy and the impending free agency class of doom, no one is going to want our long, bad contracts (I.E. Kaman, Baron and Zach) unless we take back a bad contract ourselves.

The Kaman for Wallace trade seemed to have made the most sense out of the trade rumors floating around earlier in the year. Any trade we do will probably be very similar to that one.

Fritz

Maybe we can sucker Detroit into taking Kaman for Tayshaun Prince.

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I was just thinking that, having a 3 that can defend like hell and shoot the 3 would be great.

Q.D.

This draft is weak, probably drafting a small forward that can pass the ball around

Again, don’t trust those attendance numbers. Walk-up sales and short-term packages (12-game packs, eight-game packs and the like) haven’t gone into a free fall only because of steep discounts, and the drop-off for the Big Attendance Three (premium season tickets, suites and courtsides) won’t be felt until next season. Well, unless you’re talking about the Clippers — the franchise with the worst luck in sports history — who picked the 2008-09 season, of all years, to offer a “You can change your mind on season tickets up until Opening Night and we’ll give you your money back” guarantee. In a related story, they’re getting hammered this season. I’d give you the actual drop in revenue net, but the NBA guards that stuff as tightly as the Secret Service guards Obama. As far as we “know,” the 2009 Clippers are “averaging” nearly 16,000 paying fans per game. That’s about as realistic as Mike Dunleavy claiming he spends $100,000 a year on his wardrobe.

(Sorry, he never claimed that. I just felt like making fun of his wardrobe. The fans in my section at Staples Center finally figured out how Dunleavy dresses for games: like someone who owns a funeral home. No, really, He wears ugly gray suits or light blue suits; they always look as if he bought them at a two-for-one sale; and he always looks like he’s going to tell you how sorry he is that your aunt passed away. He even slicks his hair back like an extra on “Six Feet Under.” In a way, it’s the perfect look for this season. He’s the undertaker. In fact, that’s what I hope Clippers fans start calling him: The Undertaker. It’s perfect.)

Look around during Clippers games, and you can see clouds everywhere. Half the arena is empty most nights, unless they’re playing a team with transplant fans in Southern California — such as when the Staples Center was half-filled with Celtics fans Wednesday — and there are consistently 12-15 empty courtside seats for every game.

Stian

Bill Simmons has crossed the line from funny, sarcastic writer to annoying little piss ant.

Go work on that NBA tattoo book with Baron, Billy Boy, and STFU already.

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